Bad news for investors in tech stocks Tuesday: In early afternoon trading, shares of companies both profitable and unprofitable are plummeting on disheartening news about the economy -- and interest rates.

As of 12:10 p.m. ET, shares of e-signature pioneer DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU) are down a big 6.4%, followed by cybersecurity specialist CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) with a loss 5%. For that matter, even the granddaddy of all tech stocks, Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL), is looking at a 4.6% loss for this day.

So why are tech stocks selling off? Basically, it's the economy -- and more precisely, the inflation rate. This morning, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics surprised investors with a report that inflation inched up another 0.1% in August, to 8.3% -- instead of falling alongside declining gas prices, as had been expected.  

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Source Fool.com